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Season One Recap

It continues…May 18.

In the meantime, catch up with Season One of Obnoxious Weeds with the below recap.

Joanne Evans

Joanne loved and adored her father. He was the only family she had, as her mother had died when Joanne was born. Joanne was the apple in Benjamin’s eye. Every day she reminded him of his wife, and he lived to ensure that Joanne had the best upbringing she could possibly have.

Benjamin Pickering was killed instantly when he was crossing the road one day on his way to his office in the heart of Peppercorn Patch. It was a hit and run accident that left the whole town in shock and one little twelve year old girl without a father.

Young Joanne had only one place to go – to live with her Aunty Val. Valerie Pickering owned the local pub, The Grand Hotel, and was very troubled with alcohol dependence. Joanne, although still at a very young age, learned to grow up quickly. At times she felt as if she was the adult looking after her aunty.

Joanne is struggling to see through the smoke around her. She tries to call out for help again but all she manages to do is breathe in more smoke. It is making her cough and eyes are in pain. So are her legs. She can’t move them. Around her the building continues to collapse. The house shudders and shakes violently.

“Joanne? Richard?” Constable Kyle Cook bellowed, competing with the sound of the exploding house. As he entered into the burning wreckage, the house seemed to start falling down around him. He frantically looked around for any sign of life.

It was then that he saw her. Sprawled out across the lounge room floor with a splintered cricket bat laying at her feet, at first he thought Joanne was dead. An explosion from behind startled Kyle Cook as made his way closer to Joanne. He could see her stir. She was alive.

“Joanne,” Kyle called out to Joanne. “I’m here.”

It is hard for Joanne to comprehend that less than 24 hours ago she was watching television on the lounge with her husband, Richard Evans.

Devastatingly, her attacker, Thomas Helling, had left Joanne unable to move her legs. The hospital staff had informed Joanne that she would have a long recovery ahead of her.

Joanne quickly tears the envelope open and reads the short letter that has been written for her. Without hesitating, Joanne picks up her mobile phone and dials the police sergeant’s number.

“Sergeant,” Joanne says to Sergeant Anders when he answers his phone, “I’ve just received a delivery from Thomas. He knows where I am.”

She reads the poem out loud to the police officer:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the best surgeons and all the best men, Couldn’t put Joanne back together again.

Cathy Gilmore

“Cathy!” a colleague calls Cathy Gilmore over to the nurse’s station and hands her a sealed envelope. “This arrived for you.”

Cathy takes the envelope and looks it over. It is blank apart from her name written on the front. Curious, Cathy tears the envelope open quickly and pulls out the contents; a handwritten letter.

As quickly as she tore the envelope open, Cathy rips the letter into little pieces and dumps them into the closest rubbish bin.

She can’t help but think about the words written on the letter:

Roses are Red. Violets are Blue. Life would be perfect – if it wasn’t for you.

Richard Evans

The plastic binds hold Richard Evans’ hands together behind his back. He can no longer feel his arms due to the pain that has taken over.

Richard tries to look around him but everything is dark apart from a few scattered candles which have been lit and provide a dim glow. He can see the windows of the room he is in have been blackened out by thick black plastic.

Richard stares confused at an increasingly excited Thomas. Thomas suddenly darts across the room and rips the black plastic down from one of the windows. Both men are suddenly blinded as sunlight rushes into the room.

As his eyes adjust to the light, Richard can see treetops disappear into the distance.

Both men gaze down over the quiet town below them from the house high up on the hill.

Constable Kyle Cook bursts into the room. Thomas goes to lunge at the police officer with his scalpel, but Kyle Cook’s drawn hand gun fires a shot towards Thomas and he drops to the floor.

Kyle can see Thomas Helling lying motionless on the floor. He grabs the scalpel from Thomas’ grasp and rushes over to assist Richard.

Without saying another word, Constable Kyle Cook takes the scalpel he is holding and its sharp blade slashes open Richard Evans’ throat sending a river of blood gushing to the floor.

Kyle Cook

As Kyle Cook worked alongside Richard Evans and his two other friends in reviving Thomas Helling once they had pulled him from the water, he couldn’t help but think of his responsibility as a new police recruit. He felt proud that he was able to rescue Thomas.

It was the lack of acknowledgement that hurt Kyle Cook the most. Richard Evans had claimed sole responsibility for rescuing Thomas and Joanne and, to top it off, Richard had been making moves on Joanne. Kyle felt betrayed. After all, he was the one who saved the couple. Without him that evening, neither would be alive today, especially Thomas. Joanne should have been falling in love with him, not Richard.

Once he heard that Thomas Helling had awoken from his coma, he hatched a plan and raced to Thomas’ side.

“I’m here to look after you,” Kyle had promised his new friend. “Joanne has been taken from you, but I know what you need to do to get her back. Richard Evans needs to die.”

Thomas picks up the bloody scalpel from the floor and starts waving it towards Kyle. “Maybe I am crazy like everybody says.” Thomas is the one now smiling.

Without warning, there is a flash of bright light as the door bursts open. Both men are startled by the flashlight that Sergeant Michael Anders is wielding.

Michael Anders shines the light over the room as he quickly takes everything he is seeing in. His flashlight shines over Richard’s bloody body in the corner of the room.

Through the open window, Constance Helling peers into the candlelit room. She looks on in horror as three bullets leave Sergeant Michael Anders’ handgun and explode through Thomas’ body.

Constance Helling

“What brings you back to town?” Valerie Pickering asks the large woman in front of her.

“Well, if you must know,” Constance leans in close to Valerie over the bar, “I drove in from Holgate this morning to see my father. He’s not well. He’s in hospital and I don’t think he’ll last the week. I’ll stay for a few days.”

“I’m sorry to hear,” Valerie says to Constance.

“Don’t be sorry. He’s had a good innings. He is acting a bit strange though. He gave me this box.” Constance lifts a small wooden box out of her bag. Valerie can see the initials H.B. engraved on the front.

Constance Helling can see the destruction around her. The half renovated house looks very different to how she remembered it as a child.

Constance walks to the back of the house and into the small bedroom which was once hers. Kneeling down in the corner of the room, she uses a metal tool to pry open a loose wooden floorboard.

Lifting the piece of floorboard from its place, Constance puts her hand inside the small hole and finds a silver key inside. She pulls the wooden box her father had given her from her handbag and slides the key inside the lock. As she opens the lid of the box, she looks down at the contents of the box in puzzlement.

Joanne Evans

Joanne peers down at her father’s grave. “I have some flowers for you, dad.” A bunch of white tulips sit on her lap. As she reaches down to unlock her wheelchair’s brakes, the flowers fall to the ground.

She struggles for a few moments to pick up the flowers that are now out of her reach, before suddenly hearing footsteps on the grass behind her.

“Let me help,” Joanne can hear a woman’s voice.

“Thank you,” Joanne says as the woman places the flowers back onto Joanne’s lap. All Joanne can see is a vision of red. The woman’s dress is the same colour as her bright red hair. “I’m still getting used to this thing,” Joanne points to the wheelchair.